FOR- PROFIT PRESIDENT

The First 100 Days of Donald Trump’s Presidency: Enriching His Private Business, Carrying Out a Corporate Takeover and Putting Profits Before People April 24, 2017: PRELIMINARY RESULTS By Rick Claypool, Research Director for Public Citizen’s President’s Office

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About Public Citizen Public Citizen is a national non-profit organization with more than 400,000 members and supporters. We represent consumer interests through lobbying, litigation, administrative advocacy, research, and public education on a broad range of issues including consumer rights in the marketplace, product safety, financial regulation, worker safety, safe and affordable health care, campaign finance reform and government ethics, fair trade, climate change, and corporate and government accountability.

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© 2017 Public Citizen.

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INTRODUCTION From day one, President Trump has used his position to expand and enrich his private businesses, lead an unprecedented corporate takeover by installing CEOs and corporate cronies at the highest levels of government and advance policies the prioritize expanding Big Business profits at the expense of the public interest. Much of what happened over the course of Trump’s first 100 days in office was presaged by his transition, which was characterized by a rapid influx of corporate-connected staff who were made responsible for transferring power to the incoming administration.1 The transition staff members were soon upstaged by Trump’s cabinet nominees, a selection of CEOs and corporate-backed Republican officials who constitute an unprecedented corporate cabinet.2 And while plans for dramatic cuts to federal programs3 and high-level meetings with corporate executives regarding business matters before the government4 were going on before Trump took the oath of office, the true depth of the administration’s unswerving commitment to an especially savage version of corporate capitalism is now, as we approach the first 100 days under the Trump administration, utterly clear. 1 https://medium.com/public-citizen/corporate-interests-infest-trump-transition-at-federal-agencies-c42d32cb5ec1 - .p9i4ho9yq 2 http://corporatecabinet.org/ 3 http://thehill.com/policy/finance/314991-trump-team-prepares-dramatic-cuts 4 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/trump-meetings-mergers-lawyers/

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DAY 94 Sunday, April 23, 2017

Profits Before People A White House official tells Reuters to expect executive orders to expand offshore oil and gas drilling and fossil fuel development on public lands in the week ahead.5

5 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-energy-idUSKBN17P0JC

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DAY 93 Saturday, April 22, 2017

Corporate Takeover The New York Times details Trump’s inner circle of unofficial confidants, including billionaire corporate executives such as Rupert Murdoch (News Corporation), Steven Schwarzman (Blackrock), Steven Roth (Vornado Realty), Philip Ruffin (casino owner), Carl Icahn (Icahn Enterprises, Federal-Mogul) and Thomas Barrack, Jr. (Colony Capital).6

6 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/us/politics/donald-trump-white-house.html

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DAY 92 Friday, April 21, 2017

Profits Before People Trump signs an executive order to weaken Obama-era restrictions on corporate “inversions,” a scheme multinational corporations use to avoid paying U.S. taxes7 and two memoranda directed and weakening parts of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, including the body charged with designating financial institutions “too big to fail.”8

7 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/corporate-inversion-rules-to-be-reviewed-under-trump-order-mnuchin-says-2017-04-21 8 http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/04/21/Trump-targets-more-Obama-era-regs-that-guard-against-corporate-abuses/5711492800182/

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DAY 91 Thursday, April 20, 2017

Enriching Private Business An inventory of Trump properties by USA Today finds that Trump’s corporations own at least 422 condo units, 12 mansions and “dozens” more smaller pieces of real estate, with the total value estimated to be at least $250 million.9 USA Today makes the point that any person or corporation could buy one of these properties, including potentially at an above-market price, to ingratiate themselves with the president.

9 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/04/20/trump-owns-250m-condos-and-you-could-buy-one/100566302/

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DAY 90 Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Corporate Takeover Less than one week after former ExxonMobil CEO and current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin,10 the Wall Street Journal reveals that ExxonMobil is lobbying for a waiver from U.S. sanctions on Russia so that it can drill for oil with Russia’s state-run oil company.11 (Trump said no.12)

Profits Before People FCC chairman Ajit Pai moves to eliminate rules that prevented telecommunications corporations from raising prices on other businesses and limited how many broadcast channels could be owned by a single corporation.13

Corporate Takeover An in-depth analysis by the International Business Times reveals how the Trump administration appears to be crafting policies that are particularly beneficial for Blackstone, a financial firm whose CEO Stephen Schwarzman routinely officers policy advice to Trump and, likewise, how Blackstone appears to be pursuing investments that reflect Trump policy priorities.14

10 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/world/europe/tillerson-putin-lavrov-russia-syria.html 11 https://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-seeks-u-s-waiver-to-work-in-russia-despite-sanctions-1492620677 12 http://www.vox.com/world/2017/4/21/15387254/exxon-russia-rex-tillerson-waiver 13 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/technology/ajit-pai-fcc-telecom-deregulation.html 14 http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/how-billionaire-trump-adviser-evades-ethics-law-while-shaping-policies-make-money

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DAY 89 Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Corporate Takeover The Federal Election Commission releases a 500-page report on contributions to Trump’s inauguration. Corporations contributed a significant portion to the $106.7 million haul, including Reynolds American, Boeing, AT&T, General Motors, Murray Energy Corporation, Comcast, Anthem and Northrop Grumman. Among the most generous donors – those who gave at least $1 million – were billionaires Sheldon Adelson, Robert Mercer, Charles Schwab and Paul Singer.15

Profits Before People To promote American manufacturing, Trump visits the Madison, Wis., headquarters of Snap-On, a tool corporation that reportedly manufactures some of its products in China, is embroiled in lawsuits and is accused of engaging in predatory lending practices with its franchisees.16

15 https://www.publicintegrity.org/2017/04/19/20827/donald-trump-inauguration-bankrolled-corporate-giants 16 http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-visiting-snap-on-while-franchisees-furious-2017-4

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DAY 88 Monday, April 17, 2017

Corporate Takeover An analysis by Public Citizen reveals Trump has met with at least 190 corporate executives – averaging more than two a day. Counting repeat attendees, he has had at least 222 corporate executive meetings.17

Corporate Takeover Reuters details the influence of Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive who Trump nominated to lead the National Economic Council, in steering the administration toward corporate-friendly policies.18

17 http://www.citizenvox.org/2017/04/17/corporate-executives-swamp-white-house/ 18 http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-cohn-idUSL1N1HP1D6

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DAY 87 Sunday, April 16, 2017

Enriching Private Business In response to thousands of activists demonstrating in more than 150 cities nationwide who called for Trump to make his tax returns public in order to reveal potential conflicts of interest, the president tweets, “I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?” and “Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!”19

19 http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-investigation-tax-day-protesters-tweets-election-over-n747101

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DAY 86 Saturday, April 15, 2017

Corporate Takeover Reporting by ProPublica and the New York Times finds that a slew of former lobbyists are now working within the Trump administration to deregulate the industries they previously represented from the outside, in some cases in apparent violation of the Trump administration’s ethics policy.20

20 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/15/us/politics/trump-appointees-potential-conflicts.html

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DAY 85 Friday, April 14, 2017

Corporate Takeover The White House announces it will not make visitor logs public, a reversal of the Obama administration’s policy, which enabled journalists, advocates and the public to track corporate lobbyists and others who were influencing policy in the executive branch.21

Profits Before People The Trump administration awards a $110 million contract to build a new immigrant detention center to GEO Group, a private prison company that contributed $225,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC and $250,000 toward Trump’s inauguration.22

Corporate Takeover Trump nominates two Republican former members of Congress to oversee the Export-Import Bank, an agency Trump called “unnecessary” on the campaign trail.23 While some corporate-backed groups such as the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity and the Club for Growth support eliminating the agency, large manufacturers such as General Electric and Boeing that sell products abroad support the agency, as does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.24

Corporate Takeover Nancy Beck, a policy director for the American Chemistry Council (a chemical industry lobbying group whose members include ExxonMobil, Monsanto, Bayer, Dow Chemical, and DuPont), is Trump’s pick to head the EPA office charged with regulating the chemical industry.25

21 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/white-house-says-it-wont-make-visitor-logs-public-237235 22 https://mic.com/articles/174221/private-firm-wins-110-million-contract-for-new-immigrant-detention-center-in-texas 23 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/white-house-says-it-wont-make-visitor-logs-public-237235 24 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-eximbank-idUSKBN17F03C 25 http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/04/trump-just-put-chemical-industy-hack-charge-assessing-chemicals-epa

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DAY 84 Thursday, April 13, 2017

Profits Before People In an interview on Fox News, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt says the U.S. should “exit” the Paris climate agreement.26

Corporate Takeover Dow Chemical sent letters to Trump cabinet members – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke – lobbying them to ignore findings that pesticides the corporation manufactures are harmful to endangered species.27 Dow CEO Andrew Liveris leads a group of Trump’s CEO advisors and the corporation contributed $1 million to the president’s inauguration.

26 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/14/trumps-epa-chief-scott-pruitt-calls-for-an-exit-to-the-paris-climate-agreement/ 27 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/dow-chemical-pushing-trump-administration-scrap-risk-study-article-1.3078798

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DAY 83 Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Profits Before People Trump flip-flops on his campaign promise to label China a currency manipulator.28 The change comes after the billionaire CEO of Blackstone, Steve Schwarzman, urged him to make the decision. Labeling China a currency manipulator, Blackstone informed investors, would damage the firm’s profits.29

Profits Before People Education Secretary Betsy DeVos withdraws borrower protections that prevent predatory practices by student loan servicers.30

28 http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-flips-campaign-promise-label-china-currency-manipulator/story?id=46758466 29 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/trump-schwarzman-blackstone-influence-237341 30 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/devos-reverses-obama-era-directives-aimed-at-protecting-student-loan-borrowers-2017-04-12

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DAY 82 Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump holds the second meeting of the Strategic and Policy Forum, a policy advisory group made up of more than a dozen CEOs representing corporations including General Motors, IBM, Wal-Mart, PepsiCo and Boeing.31

Profits Before People Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, solicits public comments for deregulatory priorities.32

Corporate Takeover Trump administration nominees announced today33 include Marshall Billingslea, a Deloitte executive, to be assistant secretary for terrorist financing for the Department of the Treasury; John Marshall Mitnick, general counsel for the corporate-backed Heritage Foundation, to be general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security; and John Sullivan, a partner in the corporate law firm Mayer Brown whose clients include “major oil and gas companies, consulting, accounting, and financial services firms, petrochemical companies, and manufacturers,”34 to be deputy Secretary of State.

Profits Before People Carlos Muniz, an aide to Florida’s attorney general who is credited with preventing the state from suing Trump University, is named to be general counsel of the Education Department.35

Profits Before People The Department of Agriculture delays implementation of rules intended to level the playing field for poultry and livestock farmers in their dealings with the “Big Meat” agribusinesses they supply.36

31 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/donald-trump-david-bill-koch-brothers-237059 32 https://www.whitehouse.gov/reorganizing-the-executive-branch 33 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/11/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-personnel-key 34 https://www.mayerbrown.com/people/John-Sullivan/ 35 https://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/04/11/us/politics/ap-us-devos-trump-u.html?_r=0&referer=https://t.co/I0MxAmmdWl 36 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-21/farmers-have-a-beef-with-trump-and-big-meat

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DAY 81 Monday, April 10, 2017

Profits Before People Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, is sworn in.37 Reuters characterizes Gorsuch as a “friend to business” when he was a private lawyer.38

Profits Before People Toyota Motor Corporation announces a $1.33 billion investment, and Trump takes credit, despite the plan having been in the works for three years.39

Profits Before People A 25-year employee of the EPA resigns with a scathing letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt that compares Pruitt’s denial that carbon dioxide causes global warming to the denial by tobacco CEOs that cigarettes cause cancer.40

37 http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/neil-gorsuch-sworn-supreme-court-justice/story?id=46699857 38 http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-court-gorsuch-business-idUSL1N1FM261 39 https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-10/trump-takes-credit-as-toyota-spends-1-33-billion-on-camry-plant 40 http://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Morale-is-rock-bottom-budget-cuts-indefensible-11063573.php

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DAY 80 Sunday, April 9, 2017

Enriching Private Business An analysis by Slate of Trump’s traveling finds that, in less than three months in office, the Trump has already spent twice the amount of President Obama’s annual travel budget.41

41 http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/04/09/trump_has_already_spent_almost_double_obama_s_annual_travel_budget.html

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DAY 79 Saturday, April 8, 2017

Corporate Takeover At Mar-a-Lago, Trump meets with billionaire corporate CEOs, including Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone42 and, separately, David and Bill Koch.43

42 http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/playbook/2017/04/wh-still-making-calls-looking-for-a-deal-on-health-care-mulvaneys-rising-status-17-ceos-to-the-white-house-for-a-meeting-with-potus-congressmans-dad-writes-a-letter-to-the-freedom-caucus-219696 43 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/donald-trump-david-bill-koch-brothers-237059

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DAY 78 Friday, April 7, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump nominates Kevin Allen Hassett from the corporate-backed American Enterprise Institute to be the chair the Council of Economic Advisors;44 Nemoi Rao, a faculty member at the Koch-backed law school at George Mason University and an opponent of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to be the administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s powerful Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; Russell Vought of the corporate-backed advocacy group Heritage Action to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget; and Dr. Mark Green, founder and CEO of an emergency room staffing company, to be Secretary of the Army.45 Green, also a Tennessee state senator, has been sharply criticized for supporting legislation permitting discrimination against transgender people.46

44 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/07/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-personnel-key 45 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/07/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-personnel-key 46 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/lgbt-advocacy-groups-slam-army-secretary-nominee-mark-green-article-1.3043141

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DAY 77 Thursday, April 6, 2017

Profits Before People Trump prepares an executive order to expand offshore oil drilling.47 Fossil fuel corporations, including ExxonMobil and Citgo Petroleum, collectively contributed at least $10 million to Trump’s inauguration.48

Enriching Private Business One day after Ivanka Trump joins her father for a dinner meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government approves three new trademarks for Ivanka’s company, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC, bringing the total up to 16.49

Enriching Private Business The Georgian ambassador posts a tweet promoting the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., calling it a “great” hotel that has “so far the best service I’ve seen in the United States!”50

47 https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-06/trump-said-to-ready-order-to-expand-oil-drilling-in-u-s-waters 48 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/trump-inauguration-sheldon-adelson-fundraising.html 49 https://apnews.com/d9e34f23a64947d99e4a7d757012c509 50 https://thinkprogress.org/georgian-ambassador-accidentally-illustrates-trumps-conflicts-of-interest-6a110be0d921

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DAY 76 Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Enriching Private Business Trump returns to Mar-a-Lago for a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping.51

Corporate Takeover Amid rumors of internal feuding between Trump advisors Jared Kushner and Steven Bannon, Breitbart News – the far-right nationalist website where Bannon was CEO – publishes a series of articles attacking Kushner.52

Profits Before People The EPA proposes eliminating programs that protect children from lead paint exposure.53

51 https://apnews.com/9cee0e6069ac4bbd90d009fa3ff961ee 52 https://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/04/06/defend-bannon-breitbart-has-opened-fire-presidents-son-law/215938 53 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/05/trumps-epa-moves-to-defund-programs-that-protect-children-from-lead/

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DAY 75 Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Corporate Takeover At the White House, Trump hosts a “CEO Town Hall,”54 a gathering of senior administration officials with dozens of corporate executives from several industries, especially finance and real estate.55

Profits Before People Today is the deadline for contractors bidding to construct Trump’s proposed Mexico border wall, and construction companies are nervous about conflicts with activists who oppose the wall.56

Corporate Takeover Trump nominates Heath Tarbert, a partner with the corporate law firm Allen & Overy LLP, to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Markets and Development.57 According to Tarbert’s Allen & Overy biography, he regularly represents financial institutions against regulators including “the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and other U.S. federal and state financial regulators.”58

Corporate Takeover Reuters reveals that Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee to chair the SEC, communicated with Peter Thiel, a Trump advisor and co-founder of a business that contracts with the SEC, before he was nominated.59

54 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/04/remarks-president-trump-and-vice-president-pence-ceo-town-hall 55 https://www.thestreet.com/story/14072102/1/trump-ceo-town-hall-today-includes-hedge-fund-chiefs-real-estate-moguls.html 56 http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Final-Bids-Submitted-for-Proposed-Border-Wall-418287223.html 57 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/04/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-heath-p-tarbert 58 http://www.allenovery.com/people/en-gb/Pages/Heath-Tarbert.aspx 59 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-sec-palantir-idUSKBN17604J

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DAY 74 Monday, April 3, 2017

Profits Before People Trump signs legislation rescinding a worker protection rule from OSHA that authorized the agency to fine businesses for failing to keep adequate records going back five years of workplace-related illnesses, injuries and deaths.60

Profits Before People Trump signs legislation rolling back the FCC’s internet privacy rules that prohibit broadband providers from selling users personal browsing activities.61 The legislation is largely seen as a gift to the telecommunications industry.62 Verizon, Comcast and AT&T collectively contributed more than $2 million to Trump’s inauguration.63

Corporate Takeover Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, is named deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee. On the same day, multinational corporate law and lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs also announces a new partnership with Cohen.64

60 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/04/04/trump-kills-second-of-two-obama-era-worker-safety-rules/ 61 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/04/04/trump-kills-second-of-two-obama-era-worker-safety-rules/ 62 https://theintercept.com/2017/04/13/telecom-cash-isp/ 63 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/trump-inauguration-sheldon-adelson-fundraising.html 64 https://www.yahoo.com/news/president-trumps-personal-attorney-is-now-working-with-the-republican-party-and-a-top-law-firm-201737760.html

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DAY 73 Sunday, April 2, 2017

Corporate Takeover Revelations from the ethics disclosures continue, revealing deep ties between members of the Trump administration and the Koch brothers’ network of right-wing groups.65

65 https://www.cnet.com/news/trump-signs-bill-repealing-us-internet-privacy-rules/

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DAY 72 Saturday, April 1, 2017

Corporate Takeover Ethics disclosures reveal the vast wealth and corporate connections of Trump administration members.66

66 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/us/politics/white-house-releases-staff-financial-disclosures.html

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DAY 71 Friday, March 31, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump nominates Mira Radielovic Ricardel, a former Boeing executive, to serve as Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration.67

Corporate Takeover Trump holds a “listening session” with corporate CEO members of the National Association of Manufacturers, a leading business lobby group.68

67 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/30/president-donald-j-trump-announces-key-administration-posts 68 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/31/remarks-president-trump-listening-session-national-association

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DAY 70 Thursday, March 30, 2017

Profits Before People The Trump administration is pushing Congress to cut from its budget nearly $18 billion from domestic programs while asking for an increase in military spending and for approximately $2 billion for the proposed Mexican border wall. The budget is due at the end of April.69

Profits Before People After Trump sharply criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as a “disaster” on the campaign trail, the administration circulates a trade policy proposal that shows the administration pursuing only minor alterations whose potential benefit U.S. workers is doubtful.70

69 https://secure.politico.com/story/2017/03/donald-trump-cuts-to-domestic-programs-congress-236579 70 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/donald-trump-nafta-changes-reality-236712

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DAY 69 Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Profits Before People The Trump administration is pushing Congress to cut from its budget nearly $18 billion from domestic programs while asking for an increase in military spending and for approximately $2 billion for the proposed Mexican border wall. The budget is due at the end of April.71

Profits Before People Department of Energy staff are instructed not to use the phrases “climate change,” “emissions reduction” or “Paris agreement” in written communications.72

Profits Before People EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt rejects the EPA’s own findings that widely used insecticide is harmful to children and farm workers.73 The chemical, chlorpyrifos, is produced commercially by Dow Chemical, which contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and whose CEO leads a White House advisory committee.74

Enriching Private Business Trump’s sons seek to develop a second Trump hotel in Washington, D.C.75

71 https://secure.politico.com/story/2017/03/donald-trump-cuts-to-domestic-programs-congress-236579 72 https://secure.politico.com/story/2017/03/energy-department-climate-change-phrases-banned-236655 73 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/us/politics/epa-insecticide-chlorpyrifos.html 74 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/dow-chemical-pushing-trump-administration-scrap-risk-study-article-1.3078798 75 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-trumps-company-pursues-second-washington-hotel/2017/03/29/dfd6ee8e-0f42-11e7-9d5a-a83e627dc120_story.html

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DAY 68 Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Profits Before People Trump signs an executive order rescinding environmental protections that affect coal production and ordering a review of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.76

76 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/28/presidential-executive-order-promoting-energy-independence-and-economi-1

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DAY 67 Monday, March 27, 2017

Profits Before People Trump signs four bills that rescind Obama administration regulations.77 Among the protections that Trump removed were the Labor Department’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule (which restricts companies with workplace violations from receiving federal contracts) and the Bureau of Land Management’s planning rule (which fossil fuel corporations opposed).

Corporate Takeover Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon preside over a meeting of women CEOs.78

Corporate Takeover Trump names Makan Delrahim to oversee the Justice Department’s antitrust division.79 A former corporate lobbyist, Delrahim’s past clients include Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caesars Entertainment and Qualcomm.80

Enriching Private Business In response to a question about his movie recommendations, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a former movie producer, says, I’m not allowed to promote anything that I’m involved in […] But you should send all your kids to LEGO Batman,” a movie Mnuchin produced.81

77 http://rulesatrisk.org/resolutions/ 78 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/27/remarks-president-trump-and-vice-president-pence-roundtable-women-small 79 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/27/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-makan-delrahim 80 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/business/makan-delrahim-justice-department-mergers.html 81 https://consumerist.com/2017/03/24/treasury-secretary-mnuchin-says-to-go-see-lego-batman-one-of-many-movies-he-produced/

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DAY 66 Sunday, March 26, 2017

Enriching Private Business For the second day in a row, Trump goes back to Trump National Golf Course.82 According to a tally by The Washington Post, it is the 21st day Trump has spent at Mar-a-Lago or another Trump property out of the 66 days he has been in office.83

Corporate Takeover The White House plans to announce a new “Office of American Innovation,” which will be overseen by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and potentially involve the privatization of government services.84 According to the official announcement regarding the creation of the office, the initiative was crafted with the involvement of “more than 100 private-sector CEOs.”85

82 https://thinkprogress.org/trump-visits-trump-branded-property-for-8th-consecutive-weekend-98f14337db34 83 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/26/nearly-one-out-of-every-three-days-he-has-been-president-trump-has-visited-a-trump-property/ 84 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/27/fact-check-trump-job-boast-charter-communications/99683484/ 85 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/27/president-donald-j-trump-announces-white-house-office-american

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DAY 65 Saturday, March 25, 2017

Enriching Private Business Trump plays a full 18 holes of golf at the Trump National in Virginia near Washington, D.C., and later dines at the Trump International Hotel, near the White House in Washington, D.C.86

86 https://thinkprogress.org/trump-visits-trump-branded-property-for-8th-consecutive-weekend-98f14337db34

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DAY 64 Friday, March 24, 2017

Profits Before People Trump announces that the Keystone XL pipeline, which environmental and public interest groups vigorously opposed and which the Obama administration halted, is granted a permit to begin construction.87

Corporate Takeover Trump meets with the CEO of Charter Communications and boasts about the cable company’s planned $25 billion investment “following [his] election victory,” appearing to take credit. Charter’s investment plans had been in the works for about two years.88

Enriching Private Business Trump’s son Eric says he will update his father, the president, on the Trump Organization’s expanding profits “probably quarterly.”89 Meanwhile, the new Trump-branded hotel chain, Scion, is seeking investors, raising the prospects of numerous potential conflicts of interest.90

87 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/24/trump-administration-grants-approval-for-keystone-xl-pipeline/ 88 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/27/fact-check-trump-job-boast-charter-communications/99683484/ 89 https://secure.politico.com/story/2017/03/eric-trump-sharing-business-updates-father-236464 90 http://bigstory.ap.org/1eae9c3419ee45e3849b8cdddecc0e9a

34

DAY 63 Thursday, March 23, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump meets with CEOs from the trucking industry, a longtime foe of public and workplace protections, to discuss repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.91

Corporate Takeover Corporate advocacy titans U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity go to war over the Trump-backed legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The Chamber is pushing for it’s immediate passage as is, while Americans for Prosperity says the present Republican plan keeps too much of the Obama bill intact.92

91 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/23/remarks-president-meeting-truckers-and-ceos-healthcare 92 https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2017/03/23/u-s-chamber-of-commerce-chief-urges-house-gop-to-pass-health-bill/

35

DAY 62 Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Enriching Private Business In large part because of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago travel and the Trump’s wife and son continuing to live in Trump Tower in New York City, the Secret Service requests an additional $60 million in funding.93

93 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-asked-for-60-million-extra-for-trump-era-travel-and-protection-documents-show/2017/03/22/0967e7b6-0a85-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html

36

DAY 61 Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Corporate Takeover The U.S. bans laptop computers and other digital devices from the cabins of planes traveling to 10 airports in majority Muslim countries. While security is provided as the official reason for the ban, the move is also seen as retaliation against the Muslim country airlines, which are largely subsidized by their home countries -- a point of contention with U.S.-based airlines.94

Corporate Takeover Trump administration appointees announced today include Boeing executive Benjamin Cassidy to be the Department of Homeland Security’s liaison to Congress and Jonathan Rath Hoffman, recently an executive at Americans for Peace, Prosperity, and Security (an advocacy group affiliated with defense contractors and which urges politicians to take aggressive military policy positions95) for Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. Trump also nominated Ryan Dean Newman, formerly chief counsel for Sen. Ted Cruz and onetime lawyer at the corporate firm Jones Day, to be General Counsel for the Department of the Army.96

94 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/03/21/trump-wont-allow-you-to-use-ipads-or-laptops-on-certain-airlines-heres-the-underlying-story/ 95 https://theintercept.com/2015/05/09/military-contractors-form-group-pressure-2016-candidates-adopt-hawkish-positions/ 96 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/21/president-donald-j-trump-announces-key-administration-posts

37

DAY 60 Monday, March 20, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump meets with billionaire and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates to discuss foreign aid.97

Enriching Private Business Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who, like her father, also still owns and profits from her company, gets an office of her own in the West Wing of the White House.98

97 http://www.seattletimes.com/business/billionaire-gates-meets-with-trump-to-talk-foreign-aid/ 98 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/20/ivanka-trump-moves-into-west-wing-office-acknowledges-no-modern-precedent-for-her-role/

38

DAY 59 Sunday, March 19, 2017

Profits Before People Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, goes on CBS’s Face the Nation and defends the deep cuts to public programs that Trump’s budget proposes while Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips cost taxpayers millions.99

99 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mar-a-lago-security-costs-mick-mulvaney-white-house-budget-cuts-already-started/

39

DAY 58 Saturday, March 18, 2017

Corporate Takeover George T. Conway III, husband of White House advisor Kellyanne Conway, is appointed to lead the civil justice division of the Department of Justice.100 According to Conway’s biography on the website for the corporate law firm where he is a partner, he “played a substantial role” in the tobacco industry’s defamation case against ABC News.101 Among his writings is an op-ed he co-authored for the Wall Street Journal supporting Chevron’s aggressive litigation tactics, including the hiring of approximately 2,000 lawyers, in its legal battle against allegations of environmental harms in Ecuador.102

Enriching Private Business While the official White House readout of Trump’s activities suggest back-to-back high level policy meetings, the president in fact spent much of the day at Trump International Golf Course, golfing with the CEO of Newsmax, a conservative news outlet.103 Later, Trump dines at Mar-a-Lago with Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter, who spent more than $1 million supporting Trump’s presidential campaign.104

100 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-advisers-spouse-headed-for-senior-justice-department-post/2017/03/17/adf27dec-0b4c-11e7-b77c-0047d15a24e0_story.html?utm_term=.478079a2aad3 101 http://www.wlrk.com/gtconway/ 102 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324328204578572592476276824 103 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/19/1645072/-White-House-claimed-Trump-had-a-day-full-of-meetings-but-the-truth-emerges-with-a-swamp-selfie 104 https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/03/marvel-ceo-ike-perlmutter-and-donald-trump-are-enjoying-well-done-steaks-at-mar-a-lago-this-evening/

40

DAY 57 Friday, March 17, 2017

Corporate Takeover Along with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump meets with German CEOs.105

Corporate Takeover Carl Icahn, billionaire corporate raider and unofficial Trump advisor, pushes Trump to change ethanol policies in ways that would enable Icahn to reap hundreds of millions.106

105 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/17/remarks-president-trump-roundtable-discussion-vocational-training-us-and 106 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-17/icahn-bets-against-renewables-market-he-wants-trump-to-overhaul

41

DAY 56 Thursday, March 16, 2017

Profits Before People Trump unveils his first budget proposal, which increases military spending by $54 billion and offsets the spending with severe cuts to public protections and social programs.107 The cuts include a 31 percent reduction in funding to the EPA,108 a 28 percent reduction in funding to the State Department,109 and a 21 percent reduction in funding to the Departments of Labor and Agriculture.110 Regarding the cuts, the Obama administration’s EPA enforcement efforts said:

[More cuts] won’t just drastically reduce EPA enforcement, it will bring it to a halt […] Not only will the staff be a shadow of its former self, the inspectors, lawyers and criminal agents who would be left would be unable to do their jobs, because these cuts would zero out the already small amount of funds used to do inspections, monitor pollution and file cases.111

Corporate Takeover Among the Trump administration nominees announced on this day112 is Boeing executive Patrick Shanahan for Deputy Secretary of Defense.

107 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-federal-budget-2018-massive-cuts-to-the-arts-science-and-the-poor/2017/03/15/0a0a0094-09a1-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html 108 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/budget-reflects-trumps-vow-to-cut-epa-in-almost-every-form/2017/03/15/0611db20-09a5-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html 109 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/state-departments-28-percent-cuts-hit-foreign-aid-un-and-climate-change/2017/03/15/294d7ab8-0996-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html 110 https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-presidential-budget-2018-proposal/ 111 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/budget-reflects-trumps-vow-to-cut-epa-in-almost-every-form/2017/03/15/0611db20-09a5-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html 112 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/16/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-key-administration

42

DAY 55 Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Profits Before People In apparent response to direct lobbying by the automobile industry,113 Trump orders a review of the EPA’s fuel efficiency standards.114

113 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-autos-idUSKBN16K1L5 114 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/03/15/trump-to-pull-back-epas-fuel-efficiency-determination-opening-the-door-for-reduced-standards/

43

DAY 54 Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump administration nominees announced on this day115 include Goldman Sachs managing director James Donovan for Deputy Treasury Secretary,116 Hess Corporation “advisor” Drew Maloney as the Treasury Department’s liaison to Congress,117 and Adam Lerrick, a scholar with the corporate-backed American Enterprise Institute, as Deputy Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Finance.

115 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/14/president-donald-j-trump-announces-intent-nominate-key-administration 116 https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/revolving-door-goldman-sachs/ 117 http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/324195-more-lobbyists-finding-spots-in-trump-administration

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DAY 53 Monday, March 13, 2017

Profits Before People The Congressional Budget Office releases a report showing the Trump-backed Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act will increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 24 million.118

Corporate Takeover Billionaire-backed Breitbart News criticizes the Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace the affordable care act and attacks Speaker Paul Ryan by releasing audio of Ryan disavowing Trump in October.119

Profits Before People Trump signs legislation repealing Department of Labor rules allowing states and local governments to set up retirement accounts for workers who are not offered accounts through their employers,120 a victory for the private investments lobby,121 which opposes such rules.122

118 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/us/politics/affordable-care-act-health-congressional-budget-office.html 119 http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/13/exclusive-audio-emerges-of-when-paul-ryan-abandoned-donald-trump-i-am-not-going-to-defend-donald-trump-not-now-not-in-the-future/ 120 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/13/hj-res-67-–-disapproving-rule-submitted-department-labor-relating 121 http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2017/04/cash-strapped-pensioners?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/ 122 http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-state-401k-20160808-snap-story.html

45

DAY 52 Sunday, March 12, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump retweets America First Policies, a dark money group started by the Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign staff.123

123 https://twitter.com/RobertMaguire_/status/842716516995006464

46

DAY 51 Saturday, March 11, 2017

Profits Before People After refusing to step down, Preet Bharara, prosecutor for the southern district of New York, is fired.124 Bharara reportedly had at the time been overseeing investigations into Tom Price, formerly a Republican member of Congress from Georgia and now Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, whose stock trading activities have drawn suspicion,125 and Fox News, whose executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch, is a Trump ally.126

124 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/11/preet-bharara-us-attorney-refuses-resign-jeff-sessions 125 https://www.propublica.org/article/preet-bharara-fired-investigating-tom-price-hhs-stock-trading 126 http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/winner-in-trumps-decision-to-fire-bharara-might-be-murdoch.html

47

DAY 50 Friday, March 10, 2017

Profits Before People Forty-six U.S. attorneys abruptly receive an order from Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign.127 Among them is Preet Bharara, prosecutor for the southern district of New York, who Trump previously had asked to stay on in his powerful Wall Street jurisdiction.128 Bhara refuses to step down.

Profits Before People The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation releases a report finding that the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would amount to a collective $165 billion tax cut for millionaires.129

Profits Before People President Trump nominates Scott Gottlieb, who has spent most of his career promoting the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry,130 to be the FDA’s commissioner of Food and Drugs.

127 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/11/preet-bharara-us-attorney-refuses-resign-jeff-sessions 128 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/30/donald-trump-asks-preet-bharara-stay-us-attorney-n/ 129 http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/11/news/economy/obamacare-repeal-wealthy/index.html 130 http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=10205

48

DAY 49 Thursday March 9, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump meets with the CEOs of regional banks.131

Profits Before People EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt takes his climate denialism to cable TV, saying:

I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see … But we don’t know that yet. We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.132

Profits Before People As the Trump administration seeks to eliminate the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, the office’s leader, after a 24-year career at the agency, resigns.133

131 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/09/remarks-president-trump-national-economic-council-listening-session-ceos 132 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/09/on-climate-change-scott-pruitt-contradicts-the-epas-own-website/ 133 https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09032017/epa-environmental-justice-mustafa-ali-flint-water-crisis-dakota-access-pipeline-trump-scott-pruitt

49

DAY 48 Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Corporate Takeover Corporate executives, including Elon Musk (CEO of SpaceX and Tesla) and property developers and real estate financiers gather at the White House to discuss infrastructure policy with Trump and cabinet members.134

Profits Before People Preliminary budget documents show the White House is considering $6 billion in cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.135

134 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/08/press-briefing-press-secretary-sean-spicer 135 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-considers-6-billion-cut-to-hud-budget/2017/03/08/1757e8e8-03ab-11e7-b1e9-a05d3c21f7cf_story.html

50

DAY 47 Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump nominates Noel Francisco, a partner in the corporate law firm Jones Day, for solicitor general.136 Francisco’s corporate clients have included R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Copany, the International Coal Group and the Noel Canning Corporation.137

136 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/07/president-donald-j-trump-announces-key-administration-posts 137 http://www.fed-soc.org/experts/detail/noel-j-francisco

51

DAY 46 Monday, March 6, 2017

Profits Before People With President Trump’s support, House Republicans unveil legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.138 The repeal is a priority for corporate-backed groups like the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity, who have pushed aggressively on the issue.139

Corporate Takeover ExxonMobil announces a $20 billion investment in the Gulf Coast, and the White House issues a press release that copies ExxonMobil’s press release nearly word-for-word.140 Former ExxonMobil CEO and current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Trump before the White House issued its release.141

Enriching Private Business China approves 38 Trump trademarks, raising conflict of interest concerns.142

138 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/affordable-care-act-obamacare-health.html 139 http://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/report/preparing-smooth-transition-the-repeal-obamacare; https://americansforprosperity.org/best-chance-yet-repeal-obamacare/ 140 https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/03/07/trump-white-house-copies-parts-exxon-press-release-nearly-verbatim 141 http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/03/white-house-exxon-press-release-tillerson 142 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-grants-trump-38-trademarks-reopening-debate-about-conflicts-of-interest/2017/03/08/3b2e8434-0414-11e7-a391-651727e77fc0_story.html

52

DAY 45 Sunday, March 5, 2017

Enriching Private Business The Associated Press reports on the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., where the price for a room is $500, up “hundreds of dollars” from when the hotel first opened in September and from which the president continues to profit.143 Cabinet members who treat the hotel as their residence include Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Economic Advisor Gary Cohn and Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon.144

143 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-russia.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share 144 https://apnews.com/cc2e2c2b6b4d4417afff3aa5f768be10

53

DAY 44 Saturday, March 4, 2017

Enriching Private Business At a charity ball being hosted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, the president, along with cabinet members Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn, greet guests.145

145 http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/local/update-trump-mingles-with-mar-lago-guests-outside-charity-ball/xFRbgrtFYNamso8FXmO6PN/

54

DAY 43 Friday, March 3, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump gives a speech in Palm Springs, Fla., to Republican Party mega-donors.146

Profits Before People A leaked memo shows the Trump administration plans deep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, undermining agency’s ability to perform climate science and analysis.147

Profits Before People Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is a no-show at the presentation of the State Department’s annual human rights report.148

146 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-donors-2020-235632 147 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/03/white-house-proposes-steep-budget-cut-to-leading-climate-science-agency/ 148 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rex-tillerson-skips-state-departments-annual-announcement-on-human-rights-alarming-advocates/2017/03/03/7fbf8584-002d-11e7-8f41-ea6ed597e4ca_story.html

55

DAY 42 Thursday, March 2, 2017

Profits Before People Officials inside the White House are seriously debating whether the U.S. should withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.149

Corporate Takeover Education Secretary Betsy DeVos meets with Republican mega-donors, including hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer.150

149 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/politics/climate-change-trump.html 150 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-donors-2020-235632

56

DAY 41 Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Corporate Takeover Ryan Zinke, a Republican member of Congress from Montana, is confirmed as the Trump administration’s Secretary of the Interior.151 The fossil fuel industry, which has an interest in exploiting resources buried under public lands, is a key contributor to political campaigns supporting Zinke. Among the fossil fuel corporations that do business with the Interior Department that have supported Zinke’s campaigns are Oasis Petroleum, Halliburton, ExxonMobil, Conoco Phillips and Koch Industries. Coal industry supporters of Zinke include Arch Coal Inc., Alpha Natural Resources Inc., Cloud Peak Energy Inc., Peabody Energy Corp. and BNSF Railway Co.152

151 http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/01/politics/ryan-zinke-confirmation-vote-interior-secretary/ 152 https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060048348

57

DAY 40 Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Enriching Private Business President Trump signs an executive order to undermine the EPA’s Clean Water rule.153 The rule has been a prime target of the group that lobbies on behalf of golf course owners; the president owns twelve golf courses in the U.S.154

Profits Before People During Trump’s address to a join session of Congress,155 the president refers to the FDA’s approval process for medical products as “slow and burdensome,” signaling a deep misunderstanding of the need for a thorough and rigorous process in order to avoid preventable injuries, illnesses and deaths.156

153 http://time.com/4685522/donald-trump-epa-water-rule/ 154 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/water-trump-golf-courses_us_58bcd4a4e4b05cf0f4015c99 155 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/us/politics/takeaways-president-trump-speech-congress.html 156 http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=10187

58

DAY 39 Monday, February 27, 2017

Profits Before People The Trump administration announces budget priorities, which reportedly include a $54 billion increase in military spending and a cut of the same amount to an array of federal programs and protections, especially the EPA and the State Department.157

Corporate Takeover Trump meets with the CEOs of health insurance corporations including Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna and UnitedHealth to discuss replacing the Affordable Care Act.158

157 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/26/us/politics/trump-budget.html 158 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/27/trump-urges-insurers-to-work-together-to-save-americans-from-obamacare/

59

DAY 38 Sunday, February 26, 2017

Corporate Takeover Philp Bilden, Trump’s nominee to be secretary of the Navy, withdraws, largely due to “significant challenges he faced in separating himself from his business interests,” according to a statement by Defense Secretary James Mattis.159

159 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/27/trump-nomination-navy-secretary-withdraws-philip-bilden

60

DAY 37 Saturday, February 25, 2017

Profits Before People At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told right-wing activists they were “justified” in feeling the agency should be eliminated and pledged to get rid of climate rules and drinking water protections.160

Enriching Private Business President Trump dines at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., with daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner, Florida Governor Rick Scott and British politician Nigel Farage.161

160 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/25/scott-pruitt-epa-cpac-climate-change-pollution-regulation 161 http://www.inquisitr.com/4013604/trump-ivanka-eat-dinner-at-trump-international-hotel-washington-d-c-photos/

61

DAY 36 Friday, February 24, 2017

Profits Before People Trump signs an executive order directing the heads of federal agencies to oversee deregulatory efforts within their own agencies.162

Corporate Takeover The CEO of Breitbart News Network reveals that it is partially owned by the billionaire Mercer family, which spent more than $3.4 million to help elect Trump and other Republicans in the 2016 election.163

162 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/24/presidential-executive-order-enforcing-regulatory-reform-agenda 163 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pro-trump-megadonor-is-part-owner-of-breitbart-news-empire-ceo-reveals/2017/02/24/9f16eea4-fad8-11e6-9845-576c69081518_story.html

62

DAY 35 Thursday, February 23, 2017

Corporate Takeover Attorney General Jeff Sessions issues a memo rescinding the Obama Administration directive for the Department of Justice that forbade the use of private prisons for federal inmates.164 For-profit prison operators contributed $250,000 toward Trump’s inauguration and at least $475,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC.165

Profits Before People At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump advisor and former Breitbart News CEO Steve Bannon expressed the administration’s intention to pursue the “deconstruction of the administrative state.”166

Corporate Takeover Trump meets with CEOs of manufacturing corporations, including Ford Motor Company, Lockheed Martin, Campbell Soup Company, U.S. Steel and Johnson & Johnson.167

164 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/23/remarks-president-trump-meeting-manufacturing-ceos 165 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/23/private-prisons-back-trump-and-could-see-big-payoffs-new-policies/98300394/ 166 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-wh-strategist-vows-a-daily-fight-for-deconstruction-of-the-administrative-state/2017/02/23/03f6b8da-f9ea-11e6-bf01-d47f8cf9b643_story.html 167 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/23/remarks-president-trump-meeting-manufacturing-ceos

63

DAY 34 Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Enriching Private Business Citing “political pressure,” the Kuwaiti Embassy cancels an event planned at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C., to hold the event at the Trump International.168

168 https://thinkprogress.org/under-political-pressure-kuwait-cancels-major-event-at-four-seasons-switches-to-trumps-d-c-1f204315d513

64

DAY 33 Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Enriching Private Business Three additional Trump trademarks (bringing the total to 20) approved in Mexico.169

169 http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cef40d0189294ae3923ec301cfdf662e/mexico-oks-trump-trademarks-hotels-and-tourism-industry

65

DAY 32 Monday, February 20, 2017 Profits Before People The Trump administration is criticized for changing the methodology for economic forecasting in order to make its rosy predictions seem more plausible.170

170 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-trump-team-is-already-cooking-the-books/2017/02/20/a793961e-f7b2-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html

66

DAY 31 Sunday, February 19, 2017

Profits Before People At Mar-a-Lago, Trump strategizes Affordable Care Act repeal with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney.171 The repeal is a priority for corporate-backed groups like the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity, which have pushed aggressively on the issue.172

Enriching Private Business Ties between Trump's personal lawyer, an associate tasked by the Trump Organization with scouting for Russian business, and a Ukrainian politician are implicated in Trump's overtures to Russia.173

171 http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article133695274.html 172 http://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/report/preparing-smooth-transition-the-repeal-obamacare; https://americansforprosperity.org/best-chance-yet-repeal-obamacare/ 173 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-russia.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

67

DAY 30 Saturday, February 18, 2017

Corporate Takeover

Enriching Private Business Trump kicks off his 2020 campaign with a rally near his Mar-a-Lago resort. The New York Times reports on Mar-a-Lago’s wealthy members, who have an unprecedented degree of access and influence with the President of the United States.174 Members include fossil fuel billionaire William Koch, the lesser-known brother of the more politically active Charles and David Koch, electronic trading billionaire Thomas Peterffy, and various corporate executives.

Enriching Private Business Eric and Don Jr. attend grand opening of new Trump golf resort in Dubai, United Arab Emirates with business partner and Dubai billionaire Hussain Sajwani.175 Preparations for a ribbon cutting at a new Trump-branded hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia, are ongoing, with business partner and Malaysian multimillionaire176 Tiah Thee Kian.

Enriching Private Business President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips plus the Trump sons’ international business trips are estimated cost taxpayers more than $11.3 million after just one month, nearly as much as a year’s of President Obama’s travel expenses.177

174 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/us/mar-a-lago-trump-ethics-winter-white-house.html 175 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/world/middleeast/trump-dubai-vancouver.html 176 http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/84/malaysia-billionaires-11_Tiah-Thee-Kian_MSDT.html 177 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-costs-trips-security-taxpayer-barack-obama-month-year-a7586261.html

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DAY 29 Friday, February 17, 2017

Profits Before People Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) is sworn in as director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.178 Mulvaney has a history as an anti-regulation extremist who has supported “ending Medicare as we know it,” called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” and referred to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as “a joke.”179

Profits Before People By a vote of 52-46, Scott Pruitt is confirmed to head the EPA.180

Corporate Takeover Trump names Mike Dubke, an ally of the infamous right-wing billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch and corporate dark money kingpin Karl Rove, to be White House communications director.181

Enriching Private Business For the third week in a row, Trump returns to his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., at vast expense to taxpayers.182

178 http://www.reuters.com/video/2017/02/17/mulvaney-sworn-in-as-trumps-budget-direc?videoId=371141732&videoChannel=1 179 http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=10123 180 http://www.npr.org/2017/02/17/515802629/scott-pruitt-confirmed-to-lead-environmental-protection-agency 181 http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=10175 182 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-familys-elaborate-lifestyle-a-logistical-nightmare--at-taxpayer-expense/2017/02/16/763cce8e-f2ce-11e6-a9b0-ecee7ce475fc_story.html?utm_term=.712b33990113

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DAY 28 Thursday, February 16, 2017

Profits Before People Trump signs legislation repealing the Interior Department’s Steam Protection Rule, which protected communities from toxic water pollution caused by coal mining operations.183

Profits Before People A letter from 773 former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials urges the U.S. Senate to oppose Scott Pruitt, Trump’s nominee to lead the agency,184 as current EPA staff lobby against his appointment.185 Pruitt, Oklahoma’s attorney general when he received the nomination, has a history of climate denial,186 suing the EPA187 and allowing the fossil fuel industry to draft lobby letters on the attorney general’s letterhead.188 The Trump administration has signaled executive orders to reshape the EPA will be coming after Pruitt is confirmed.189

183 http://rulesatrisk.org/stream-protection-rule/ 184 http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-epa-pruitt-idUSL1N1G11IF 185 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/us/politics/scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency.html 186 http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435470/climate-change-attorneys-general 187 https://www.ok.gov/triton/modules/newsroom/newsroom_article.php?id=258&article_id=16092 188 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html 189 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-epa-idUSKBN15U2MW

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DAY 27 Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Profits Before People The acting head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an enforcement agency with major responsibilities involving protecting investors and policing the financial sector, acted to limit the enforcement authority of 20 senior officials. The move limits officials’ ability to subpoena corporations suspected of criminal wrongdoing; a former SEC commissioner says the new limits on subpoena power “could slow down” investigations.190

Corporate Takeover Trump holds a meeting with executives representing retail industry corporations, including Target, Best Buy and J.C. Penney.191 Billionaire Republican megadonor and Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson192 joined Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a dinner meeting at the White House.193

Profits Before People The Trump administration’s proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act’s implementation that analysts say may boost insurance company profits but raise prices for consumers.194

Corporate Takeover Billionaire hedge fund manager Stephen Feinberg, a co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, is reportedly in the running to conduct a review of intelligence agencies for the White House, sparking concern among the intelligence community. Cerberus owns DynCorp, a military contractor embroiled in a $10 billion contract dispute with the Department of State.195

190 https://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-chief-scales-back-powers-of-enforcement-staff-1487199642 191 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/15/remarks-president-trump-listening-session-retail-industry-leaders 192 https://medium.com/public-citizen/the-people-shaping-trumps-inauguration-b7cc61eff2b0 - .7oz0ad6kj 193 http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/15/politics/donald-trump-white-house-dinners/index.html 194 http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-obamacare-idUSL1N1G10WR 195 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/us/politics/trump-intelligence-agencies-stephen-feinberg.html

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DAY 26 Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Corporate Takeover Linda McMahon, billionaire and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), is sworn in as head of the Small Business Administration.196 McMahon is credited with deregulating wrestling, leading the families of some deceased wrestlers to hold her responsible for the wrestlers’ early deaths.197

Profits Before People Trump signs a bill to eliminate a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule intended to root out foreign corruption in the fossil fuel industry. The rule was designed to prevent and expose bribery by requiring corporations in the oil, gas and mining sectors to disclose payments to foreign governments. ExxonMobil lobbied against the rule for years while under the leadership of then-CEO Rex Tillerson, who Trump appointed to head the U.S. State Department.198 The bill is the first of a series that congressional Republicans plan to send to the president’s desk through the rapid-repeal method allowed under the Gingrich-era Congressional Review Act, which also blocks agencies from creating similar rules after they are cut using this method.199 Collectively, corporate interests spent more than $1 billion to influence Congress oppose the protections Republicans seek to eliminate.200

Corporate Takeover Taylor Hansen, a former lobbyist for a trade group representing for-profit colleges, joins the Trump administration’s “beachhead team” for the Department of Education (date is approximate).201

196 http://www.newser.com/article/d53e0f0445044bb9be624c586f2e6825/the-latest-linda-mcmahon-sworn-in-to-lead-sba.html 197 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/06/linda-mcmahon-lobbying-wwe-wrestling_n_1944341.html 198 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/rex-tillerson-tried-to-get-this-rule-killed-now-congress-is-about-to-do-it-for-him-214725 199 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-signs-law-rolling-back-disclosure-rule-for-energy-and-mining-companies/2017/02/14/ccd93e90-f2cd-11e6-b9c9-e83fce42fb61_story.html 200 http://www.citizen.org/documents/deregulation-for-sale-cra-report.pdf 201 https://www.propublica.org/article/for-profit-colleges-gain-beachhead-in-trump-administration

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DAY 25 Monday, February 13, 2017

Corporate Takeover Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury Secretary, is sworn in.202 Mnuchin worked for 17 years at Goldman Sachs.203 He went on to oversee OneWest, a bank known for aggressively pursuing foreclosures against homeowners. Mnuchin lied to the Senate Finance Committee, falsely claiming that OneWest did not engage in “robo-signing” and other violations of foreclosure processes.204

Profits Before People Despite beginning with an awkward handshake,205 Trump’s meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which included a roundtable discussion with women CEOs,206 left “corporate Canada” with a sense of relief, according to The Canadian Press.207 The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which represents key beneficiaries of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, and which Trump supports, praised the meeting.

202 http://www.wsj.com/video/steven-mnuchin-sworn-in-as-treasury-secretary/80F6ADF8-5FF9-4DB4-B93C-5C4CBBACFAA9.html 203 http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=1492034&privcapId=2522804 204 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/steven-mnuchin-robosigning-banks-loans-234391 205 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/13/justin-trudeau-becomes-latest-world-leader-brave-trumps-awkward/ 206 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/13/remarks-president-trump-and-prime-minister-trudeau-canada-roundtable 207 http://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/7138170-corporate-canada-comforted-after-trump-comments/

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DAY 24 Sunday, February 12, 2017

Corporate Takeover The New York Times details the connections between President Trump and Rupert Murdoch, founder of the global corporate media empire that includes News Corporation, which is seen as offering the friendliest coverage of the Trump administration.208

Enriching Private Business Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr. continue to expand the Trump Organization, attending a ribbon cutting in Dubai, restarting a stalled project in the Dominican Republic and planning to open a new hotel chain in up to 30 U.S. cities.209

208 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/12/business/media/rupert-murdoch-donald-trump-news-corporation.html 209 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/12/us/politics/eric-trump-donald-trump-jr.html

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DAY 23 Saturday, February 11, 2017

Enriching Private Business President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Abe traveled from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to a Trump golf course in Jupiter, Fla., where they golfed with professional Ernie Els.210 Upon sighting the billionaire Chiquita heir Carl Lindner IV211 and his soon-to-be-spouse at Mar-a-Lago, Trump says that he “said to the Prime Minister of Japan, I said, ‘C'mon Shinzo, let's go over and say hello.’ " He later remarked of the couple, who held their wedding ceremony at Trump’s club that night, “They've been members of this club for a long time […] They've paid me a fortune.”212 The groom’s father, Carl Lindner III, contributed $100,000 to a super PAC that supported Trump’s presidency.213

Corporate Takeover Elsewhere in Palm Beach, Fla., Blackstone CEO and Trump advisor Steve Schwarzman celebrated his 70th birthday. Among the guests were Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and Trump cabinet members Steve Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross and Elaine Chao.214

Corporate Takeover Bloomberg News reports there are so many Goldman Sachs alums entering the Trump administration that an incoming Goldman Sachs alum may have to accept a lower-than-expected administration post.215

210 http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article132177999.html 211 https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trump-is-selling-access-to-the-winter-white-house-for-200000/ 212 http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/12/politics/trump-shinzo-abe-mar-a-lago-north-korea/index.html 213 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-wedding-super-pac_us_58a1ff7be4b094a129edb356 214 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-13/schwarzman-parties-at-70-with-camels-cake-and-trump-s-entourage 215 https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-02-11/trump-team-leery-of-having-too-many-goldman-guys-in-top-posts

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DAY 22 Friday, February 10, 2017

Profits Before People Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who wants to privatize Medicare, repeal the Affordable Care Act and defund Planned Parenthood,216 is sworn in as Secretary of Health and Human Services.217 His extensive trading in health industry stocks has raised serious questions about conflicts of interest and possible insider trading.218

Enriching Private Business Trump returns to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., to meet there with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. According to White House aides, Trump will pay for the lodging of the prime minister and his wife as a gift.219 The owner of the New England Patriots joins Trump and Abe for dinner,220 and members of the president’s club “mingled with Trump and Abe into the night,” according to the Associated Press.221

Corporate Takeover Geoff Burr, recently a lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction industry trade group, is now helping run the U.S. Department of Labor, thanks to Trump’s executive order that weakened the executive branch lobbying restrictions.222 Enriching Private Business The language of the 166-page trust certification document supposedly separating Donald Trump from his businesses is quietly updated to include language allowing the president to withdraw funds from his businesses at any time.223

216 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/opinion/tom-price-a-radical-choice-for-health-secretary.html 217 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/us/politics/tom-price-health-secretary-senate.html 218 http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=10110 219 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/9/trump-shinzo-abe-golf-trip-to-use-taxpayer-money/ 220 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-latest-patriots-owner-joins-trump-abe-for-dinner/2017/02/10/c893d338-effb-11e6-a100-fdaaf400369a_story.html?utm_term=.836d94124231 221 http://bigstory.ap.org/article/6705b0904a374d84a9583d6e498235bf/trumps-florida-estate-stirs-protests-spurs-ethics-debate 222 https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-watered-down-ethics-rules-let-lobbyist-help-run-agency-he-lobbied 223 https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-pull-money-his-businesses-whenever-he-wants-without-telling-us

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DAY 21 Thursday, February 9, 2017

Enriching Private Business “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway said from the West Wing of the White House while on the Fox News Channel. “I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.”224 Conway’s comments came after Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, citing insufficient sales, and President Trump subsequently criticized the retailer using @POTUS, the president’s official Twitter account.225

Profits Before People At a meeting with airline industry CEOs, Trump and executives share an interest in privatizing air traffic control.226

Profits Before People Senator Jeff Sessions is sworn in as Attorney General, head of the U.S. Department of Justice.227 At least a third of Sessions’ top political campaign donors are corporations with matters pending before the Justice Department.228 This includes Southern Company, a coal-powered electric utility corporation, and Sessions’ top donor, which contributed more than $500,000 to support Sessions’ reelection.229 Sessions’ stint in the 1990s as Attorney General of Alabama is checkered by his failure to combat corporate crime and wrongdoing.230

Corporate Takeover Billionaire Republican megadonor and Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson231 joined Trump and administration officials for a dinner meeting at the White House.232 224 http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ivanka-trump-conway-20170209-story.html 225 http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/08/news/companies/donald-trump-nordstrom-ivanka/index.html 226 http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-trump-airline-executives-meeting-20170209-story.html 227 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/09/jeff-sessions-sworn-84th-attorney-general-executive-actions/97691732/ 228 http://www.pogo.org/our-work/reports/2017/at-least-one-third-of-attorney-general-nominees-top-donors-have-matters-involving-doj.html 229 http://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/01/13209/coal-power-play-doj-poses-conflicts-sessions 230 http://www.citizen.org/documents/sessions-blunders-alabama-ag-report.pdf 231 https://medium.com/public-citizen/the-people-shaping-trumps-inauguration-b7cc61eff2b0 - .7oz0ad6kj

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DAY 20 Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Profits Before People White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer defends Trump’s “one-in, two-out” deregulation executive order after Public Citizen, Natural Resources Defense Council and Communications Workers of America file a lawsuit, Public Citizen v. Trump,233 to block the order.234

Corporate Takeover For Secretary of Agriculture, Trump nominates former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who has received nearly $1 million in political contributions from the industry he will over see, including corporations such as Monsanto, John Deere and Tyson Foods.235

232 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/02/09/adelsons-to-meet-with-trump-for-dinner-source-says/ 233 https://www.citizen.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=6841 234 http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=10157 235 http://maplight.org/content/trump’s-ag-nominee-has-taken-almost-1-million-from-industry-during-political-career

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DAY 19 Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Corporate Takeover Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Education, is sworn in following a historic 50-50 Senate confirmation vote, a tie that was broken by Vice President Mike Pence adding his vote.236 DeVos is the daughter of a Michigan manufacturing billionaire and the wife of Amway heir and billionaire Richard DeVos.237 DeVos is an advocate for privatizing public education, a Wall Street-backed238 scheme that depends on profiting by undermining teacher compensation.239

Profits Before People Under Trump, the Army grants Energy Transfer Partners the final permit it needs to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline.240

Corporate Takeover At Trump’s request, billionaire casino CEO Steve Wynn takes on the role of the Republican National Committee’s finance chairman.241

236 https://www.buzzfeed.com/mollyhensleyclancy/betsy-devos-is-confirmed-as-education-secretary-thanks-to-an?utm_term=.jqz8Me1yo - .ffEPn89Lr 237 http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/09/amway_heir_dick_and_betsy_devo.html 238 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/nyregion/10charter.html?pagewanted=all 239 http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/why-corporations-want-our-public-schools 240 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/02/07/trump-administration-to-approve-final-permit-for-dakota-access-pipeline/ 241 https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-02-06/trump-s-former-rival-wynn-takes-over-as-his-new-gop-money-man

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DAY 18 Monday, February 6, 2017

Profits Before People Republican opponents of financial regulation inside Trump’s circle want to get rid of Richard Cordray, director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Todd Zywicki, a right-wing libertarian associated the Cato Institute and George Mason University’s Koch-funded Mercatus Center, who has called the CFPB a “disastrous” and “unaccountable super-regulator,”242 has spoken with the Trump administration about being Cordray’s replacement.243

Enriching Private Business First Lady Melania Trump intends to make multimillion-dollar “licensing, branding, and endorsement” deals in “apparel, accessories, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, hair care, skin care, and fragrance,” according to a lawsuit she files against British tabloid the Daily Mail. The lawsuit argues that, because the Daily Mail inaccurately alleged Melania Trump had worked as an escort, she will have a reduced ability to profit off her time in the White House.244 Melania’s representatives later issued a statement claiming she has “no inention” of profiting from her role as first lady.245

Profits Before People A rule that would require corporations to disclose pay inequities between their CEO and the average employee is placed on hold by Acting Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Michael Piwowar.246 Corporations and corporate groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have lobbied aggressively against the rule, which was mandated in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.

242 http://www.banking.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/58bb96f4-8268-4ecd-95dd-5e35f8d26e4a/060C9C587736B1F08DD0A117FC3EE8B6.zywicki-testimony-4-5-16.pdf 243 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-richard-cordray-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-234699 244 https://thinkprogress.org/melania-trump-reveals-plan-to-leverage-presidency-to-ink-multi-million-dollar-endorsement-deals-1999314fb8f1 - .79cw6j8bv 245 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-melania-trump-has-no-intention-of-using-her-public-position-for-personal-gain/2017/02/07/7827ca5a-ed88-11e6-9973-c5efb7ccfb0d_story.html 246 https://www.sec.gov/news/statement/reconsideration-of-pay-ratio-rule-implementation.html

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DAY 17 Sunday, February 5, 2017

Profits Before People Jim O’Neill, who reportedly has said corporations should not be required to prove that a drug is effective before selling it to consumers, is, according to The New York Times, in the running to be Trump’s nominee to head the FDA.247 Other candidates for the FDA post also oppose regulations that can slow the drug approval process.

Profits Before People Ajit Pai, a net neutrality opponent chosen by Trump to head the Federal Communications Commission, closed investigations into Verizon and AT&T data policies248 and unraveled consumer protections.249

247 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/health/with-fda-vacancy-trump-sees-chance-to-speed-drugs-to-the-market.html 248 http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-fcc-chairman-idUSL1N1FW01T 249 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/technology/trumps-fcc-quickly-targets-net-neutrality-rules.html

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DAY 16 Saturday, February 4, 2017

Enriching Private Business The New York Times reports on Trump’s ongoing ties to the Trump Organization, which include Trump maintaining authority to revoke the corporate network’s oversight by his son Donald Jr. and chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and continuing to receive reports on the Trump Organization’s profits or losses.250 President Trump remains the sole beneficiary of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.251

Profits Before People The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) removes information from its website about the mistreatment of animals at pet stores, laboratories, zoos and dog breeding operations. The Washington Post reports that eliminating the USDA database was a priority for the Calvary Group, an industry group that opposes oversight of businesses that rely on animals.252

250 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/us/politics/donald-trump-business.html 251 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/documents-confirm-trump-still-benefiting-from-his-business/2017/02/04/848fdd5a-eae0-11e6-bf6f-301b6b443624_story.html 252 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/02/03/the-usda-abruptly-removes-animal-welfare-information-from-its-website/

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DAY 15 Friday, February 3, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump holds the first meeting of his Strategic and Policy Forum, a team of 18 corporate CEOs chaired by Stephen Schwarzman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, and including CEOs of General Motors, JPMorgan Chase, Walt Disney, Wal-Mart, Boeing, Tesla, PepsiCo, IBM and General Electric.253

Profits Before People After the meeting, Trump signs an executive order aimed at unraveling the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. 254 In an interview with The Wall Street Journal about the deregulating Wall Street, White House National Economic Council Director and former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn said, “we’re not going to burden the banks with literally hundreds of billions of dollars of regulatory costs every year.” Cohn insisted his involvement with the deregulation push “has nothing to do with Goldman Sachs.”255

Profits Before People Trump also signs an executive order to block implementation of an Obama administration Labor Department rule requiring financial advisors to give advice based on their customers’ best interests. 256

Enriching Private Business Trump left the White House for a weekend trip to his Mar-a-Lago resort, a trip which is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $3 million.257 Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that a business trip by Trump’s son Eric cost taxpayers nearly $100,000.258

253 https://greatagain.gov/president-elect-trump-announces-additional-members-of-presidents-strategic-and-policy-forum-8aa8822eced9 - .ducj38aac ; while the original team included 19 CEOs, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick withdrew from the forum over criticism of the company’s participation. See http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-234559 254 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/business/dealbook/trump-congress-financial-regulations.html 255 https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-moves-to-undo-dodd-frank-law-1486101602 256 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/business/dealbook/trump-congress-financial-regulations.html 257 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-mar-lago-taxpayers-234562 258 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/eric-trumps-trip-to-uruguay-cost-taxpayers-97830-in-hotel-bills/2017/02/03/ababd64e-e95c-11e6-bf6f-301b6b443624_story.html

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DAY 14 Thursday, February 2, 2017

Profits Before People In a speech, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s newly appointed acting chair, “regulation critic”259 Maureen Ohlhausen, announces a scaling back of the agency’s aggressiveness in investigating corporate crime and wrongdoing.260 Ohlhausen says requests for information from companies “impose large compliance costs on legitimate companies” and notes disagreement with some of her predecessor’s actions under the Obama administration, such as the $20 million settlement reached with Uber over its allegedly misleading claims about potential driver earnings, which, she criticized as too costly for the corporation.261

Profits Before People On the same day, Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast vowed to “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment, a 1950s era law prohibiting electioneering activity by nonprofit organization and which, if completely repealed, could unleash a torrent of secret corporate money in politics.262

259 http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-trump-maureen-ohlhausen-federal-trade-commission-20170125-story.html 260 http://www.reuters.com/article/ftc-ohlhausen-idUSL1N1FN1HB 261 http://www.reuters.com/article/ftc-ohlhausen-idUSL1N1FN1HB 262 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/us/politics/trump-johnson-amendment-political-activity-churches.html

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DAY 13 Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Corporate Takeover Rex Tillerson is sworn in as Secretary of State.263 Before his nomination, Tillerson spent ten years as chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, the word’s largest oil corporation, where Tillerson had been employed for his entire professional life.264 Tillerson is a former chairman of American Petroleum Institute (API), the fossil fuel industry trade group, which lobbies on behalf of the industry. ExxonMobil and API are among the groups behind misinformation campaigns designed to confuse the public about the reality of human-caused climate change.265 Tillerson also is a member of the Business Roundtable, an executive-led corporate lobbying group.In the 1990s, Tillerson directed Exxon’s Russian subsidiary, Exxon Neftegas, which was incorporated in the Bahamas, an offshore tax haven.266

263 http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/01/politics/tillerson-confirmation-vote-senate/index.html 264 http://web.archive.org/web/20170101182439/http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/company/about-us/management/rex-w-tillerson 265 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/27/what-happened-to-lobbyists-who-tried-reshape-us-view-climate-change; https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/ 266 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/18/leak-rex-tillerson-director-bahamas-based-us-russian-oil-company

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DAY 12

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Profits Before People Trump meets with pharmaceutical industry CEOs. Despite previous tough talk against the industry – he said they were “getting away with murder”267 and called for lowering prices – the primary takeaway from Trump’s meeting with pharma executives, including from Amgen, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis and the industry group PhRMA, is the president’s pledge to cut taxes and eliminate public protections in order to speed up approvals.268 He told the CEOs he would eliminate 75 to 80 percent of Food and Drug Administration regulations,269 a promise that, if fulfilled, would make the agency too weak to fulfill its mission of protecting patients and consumers and ultimately result the deaths and injuries to innumerable Americans.270

Profits Before People Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court;271 Reuters characterizes Gorsuch as a “friend to business” when he was a private lawyer.272

267 http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-meeting-with-pharma-executives-2017-1 268 http://extra.thehill.com/healthcare/policy/317185-trump-proposes-regulatory-tax-cuts-for-drugmakers 269 http://www.raps.org/regulatoryDetail.aspx?id=26745 270 http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=10142 271 https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/jan/31/neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-nomination 272 http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-court-gorsuch-business-idUSL1N1FM261

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DAY 11 Monday, January 30, 2017

Profits Before People Trump signs a disastrous and likely unconstitutional273 executive order that would force federal agencies to eliminate two federal regulations for every one they wish to implement.274 The executive order relies on misleading, industry-preferred claims that dramatically overestimate regulations’ future costs and gives the director of the Office of Management and Budget authority to exempt specific rules, including, potentially, those that benefit specific businesses, including the Trump Organization.275

Corporate Takeover Elaine Chao is sworn in as secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.276 Chao is the daughter of James Chao, millionaire chairman of the Chinese shipping corporation Foremost Group, notable because the Transportation Department oversees the U.S. Maritime Administration.277 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is her husband. From 2011 to 2015, Chao received $1.2 million in compensation for serving on the board of directors of Wells Fargo.278 This period overlaps with the Wells Fargo “cross-selling” scandal, during which the company created more than 2 million unauthorized accounts. Chao also has served on the boards of directors for News Corporation, Dole and Protective Life Corporation, a financial services holding corporation.279

275 http://www.citizen.org/documents/Notes on Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs Executive Order.pdf 276 http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/politics/2017/01/31/elaine-chao-sworn-transportation-secretary/97310944/ 277 http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/another-conflict-interest-new-transportation-secretarys-family-runs-shipping 278 http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/07/investing/elaine-chao-trump-wells-fargo-transportation/ 279 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/18169/000119312513152971/d519416ddef14a.htm

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DAY 10 Sunday, January 29, 2017

Corporate Takeover

Profits Before People Over the weekend, some CEOs wring their hands about how to voice opposition to Trump’s executive order banning Muslim immigrants. The New York Times reports that most executives, if they spoke out at all, worded criticism so that it was “purposely dripping with politeness.” An anonymous CEO expressed preference for restraining any opposition the company might express for the sake of appeasing employees and consumers while avoiding damaging relations with President Trump.280 Out of the 19 CEO members of Trump’s Strategic and Economic Forum, only two spoke out against the ban.281

280 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/business/dealbook/ceo-response-trump-ban.html 281 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ceo-trump-muslims_us_588d5f26e4b08a14f7e66d10

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DAY 9 Saturday, January 28, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump signs an executive order on lobbying that loosens Obama administration restrictions on lobbyists.282 According to the order, lobbyists will be permitted to become employees of federal agencies they have lobbied (though the will not be permitted to work on specific issues on which they lobbied) and the “cooling off” period restricting communications between appointees who leave and their agency will be reduced from two to one year. The executive order also fails to place a five-year prohibition on members of Congress becoming lobbyists, which Trump pledged to do during the presidential campaign. While administration officials are forbidden from becoming lobbyists, the executive order would still allow them to cash in on their service by becoming strategic advisors, consultants or taking similar roles that do not involve direct lobbying.

282 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/28/trumps-lobbying-ban-is-both-tougher-and-weaker-than-obamas-rules/

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DAY 8 Friday, January 27, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump announces a “manufacturing jobs initiative” that will be led by Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris and include executives from corporations including Dell Technologies, Nucor Corporation, Whirlpool Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, General Electric, U.S. Steel, Campbell Soup, Tesla, Caterpillar, 3M and Corning. The group of 28 includes a total of 25 representatives from corporations, one representative from corporate lobbying group Alliance for American Manufacturing and two labor union representatives from the AFL-CIO, including the union’s president, Richard Trumka (whose name is misspelled “Tumka” on the official White House announcement).283

Enriching Private Business Profits Before People Trump signs executive order banning citizens of seven countries with predominantly Muslim populations from entering the U.S., igniting a firestorm of controversy. The list of seven countries does not include countries with predominantly Muslim population with which the Trump Organization has done business.284

Profits Before People Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) calls out the Trump administration’s Labor Department for taking down a website it created for Wells Fargo employees to report retaliation against whistleblowers.285

Corporate Takeover JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon reportedly met at the White House with Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive who Trump appointed director of the National Economic Council.286

283 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/27/president-trump-announces-manufacturing-jobs-initiative 284 https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-trump-immigration-ban-conflict-of-interest/ 285 http://www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-labor-wellsfargo-idUSKBN15B14Q 286 https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/jan/28/trump-to-skip-dinner-with-washington-elite/

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DAY 7 Thursday, January 26, 2017

Profits Before People Trump signs an executive order placing a moratorium on international treaties, placing in doubt the future of the Paris climate agreement and other environmental treaties.287

Corporate Takeover Trump nominates Philip Bilden, a recently retired head of an international private equity firm, as Secretary of the Navy.288

287 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/united-nations-trump-administration.html 288 http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/01/26/Trump-nominates-businessman-Philip-Bilden-as-Navy-Secretary/7341485432930/

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DAY 6 Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Enriching Private Business The CEO of Trump Hotels expressed interest in undertaking an aggressive expansion into major U.S. metropolitan areas.289

Enriching Private Business Trump chose Bobby Burchfield, chair of the Karl Rove dark money group Crossroads GPS and proponent of expanding big money’s role in politics, to be the ethics advisor for his business.290

Enriching Private Business And Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., has doubled its initiation fee to $200,000.291

Profits Before People Trump signs an executive order to strengthen border security, signaling an increase in federal resources for detention centers.292 For-profit prison operators contributed $250,000 toward Trump’s inauguration and at least $475,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC.293

289 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-25/trump-hotels-to-triple-locations-in-u-s-expansion-ceo-says 290 http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=10133 291 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/mar-a-lago-membership-donald-trump.html 292 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/25/executive-order-border-security-and-immigration-enforcement-improvements 293 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/23/private-prisons-back-trump-and-could-see-big-payoffs-new-policies/98300394/

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DAY 5 Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Profits Before People Trump signs executive orders to move forward with TransCanada’s Keystone XL and Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access oil pipelines.294 Environmental and public interest groups sharply oppose the pipelines. The Obama administration had rejected the Keystone XL pipeline and delayed construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in response to concerns from environmental activists and Native Americans.295 The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s primary lobbying group, praised the executive orders.296

Profits Before People Trump signs an executive order directing the Commerce Department to rush the permitting process for the construction of factories and reducing public protections around these projects.297

Profits Before People Trump signs an executive order to rush environmental reviews of infrastructure projects.298

Profits Before People At a meeting with the CEOs of General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Ford Motor Company, Trump says environmental protections are “out of control” and entices the companies with promises to reduce taxes and “unnecessary” regulations.299

294 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/01/23/president-trump-signs-order-to-withdraw-from-transpacific-partnership/ 295 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/12/04/standing-rock-tribe-says-army-halt-dakota-access-pipeline/94966882/ 296 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/01/24/trump-gives-green-light-to-dakota-access-keystone-xl-oil-pipelines/ 297 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/24/presidential-memorandum-streamlining-permitting-and-reducing-regulatory 298 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/24/executive-order-expediting-environmental-reviews-and-approvals-high 299 https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-23/trump-to-meet-with-ford-chrysler-and-gm-chiefs-on-tuesday

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DAY 4 Monday, January 23, 2017

Corporate Takeover Trump started his first full weekday in office with a breakfast meeting with CEOs of a dozen corporations including Arconic, Corning, Dell, Dow Chemical Company, Ford Motor Company, International Paper, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, UnderArmour and U.S. Steel.300

Profits Before People At the meeting, Trump said he would slash regulations “75 percent,” a promise there is no way to keep without eliminating bedrock public protections that restrain Wall Street recklessness, prevent drinking water from being contaminated, ensure the safety of our food and medicines, protect the environment, and so on, and which echoes the lie that regulatory protections impose greater costs than benefits on the U.S. economy.301

Profits Before People Trump signs an executive order instituting an immediate hiring freeze for all federal agency positions except “military personnel” and positions “deemed necessary for “national security” or “public safety,” 302 a decision which, in effect, undermines agencies’ ability to monitor and take enforcement actions against reckless corporations.

Corporate Takeover

Jeffrey H. Wood, a lobbyist for Southern Company, a coal-powered electric utility corporation, is appointed as acting assistant attorney general of the U.S. Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division – the division DOJ responsible for prosecuting environmental crimes.303

Profits Before People

Internal communications at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), meanwhile, revealed that the agency had been directed to suspend all contract and grant awards, an action that one EPA employee described as “extraordinary.”304 (Following public outcry, the freeze was ended.305)

300 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/23/trump-pledges-major-border-tax-ceo-meeting-white-house/96949832/ 301 http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=10129 302 https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/23/presidential-memorandum-regarding-hiring-freeze 303 https://theintercept.com/2017/01/27/coal-doj-trump/ 304 https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-administration-imposes-freeze-on-epa-grants-and-contracts 305 https://www.buzzfeed.com/azeenghorayshi/trump-freezes-epa-funds?utm_term=.ktZWra2NA - .wyZadkvQR

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DAY 3 Sunday, January 22, 2017

Corporate Takeover At the Davos World Economic Forum, corporate executives from around the globe had gathered to play make-believe about the refugee crisis306 and expressed optimistic views about the impending Trump administration.307 Among them was Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S. with more than $2.4 trillion in assets. JPMorgan contributed to the Trump Inauguration and has spent millions lobbying to weaken the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act, which Trump’s transition website pledged to “dismantle.”308 Dimon said:

Donald Trump has put some professional people around himself. Experienced. Successful. I know a lot of people seem to think that success and experience are reasons you shouldn't serve in public office. But they are knowledgeable and smart and they've been around the world. And hopefully when we go from one-liners — forget the one-liners and tweets — to serious policy, maybe we'll do the things that help America grow better and help the average American. 309

306 http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/davos-elites-simulate-the-refugee-experience-by-pretending-to-flee-advancing-armies 307 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-21/trump-was-taken-seriously-by-ceos-at-davos-but-not-literally 308 http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/305441-trump-transition-vows-to-dismantle-dodd-frank 309 http://www.businessinsider.com/jame-dimon-trump-davos-2017-1

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DAY 2 Saturday, January 21, 2017 President Trump delivers a speech at CIA headquarters.

Profits Before People

Corporate Takeover During the speech, Trump speculates that the United States should have “taken the oil” from Iraq after the 2003-2011 Iraq war:

“[I]f we kept the oil, you probably wouldn’t have ISIS because that’s where they made their money in the first place, so we should have kept the oil. But, OK, maybe we’ll have another chance.”310

The idea that the US should have “taken” Iraq’s oil, which many critics note would contravene international law, was a campaign theme for Trump. Erik Prince, former CEO of Blackwater, a now-defunct corporate mercenary outfit, has defended the idea.311 (Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Education Secretary nominee, and both are children of a Michigan billionaire.312)

310 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-cia-iraq-oil_us_5883ccf5e4b096b4a23243b2 311 http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/09/08/erik-prince-trumps-idea-of-tolling-iraqi-oil-to-repay-american-taxpayers-would-work/ 312 http://time.com/4606096/betsy-devos-schoolyard-rebel/

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DAY 1 Friday, January 20, 2017

Donald J. Trump is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.

Corporate Takeover

Among the top funders of the Inauguration and surrounding festivities are corporations that have pending business before the president: AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing, Chevron, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase and United Parcel Service.313 Trump’s Inaugural Committee, which was responsible for raising private money to pay for the Inaugural festivities, includes corporate executives, right-wing billionaires, Goldman Sachs alums, corporate lobbyists and lawyers, and at least one convicted felon, a financier who pleaded guilty to corruption charges.314

Profits Before People

Trump signs an executive order to weaken the Affordable Care Act315 and an executive order to “freeze” regulations.316

Corporate Takeover General James Mattis, a former board member of multibillion-dollar military contractor General Dynamics,317 is sworn in as Secretary of Defense; General John Kelly, an advisor for DynCorp,318 a privately held military contractor, is sworn in as Secretary of Homeland Security.

Corporate Takeover “Beachhead teams,” tasked with serving as the Trump administration’s “eyes and ears” within the federal agencies, begin their work.319 The teams include many former lobbyists for regulated industries such as the pharmaceutical industry, the defense industry, and the financial sector, who are now going to work within the regulatory agencies.320

313 https://medium.com/public-citizen/corporate-contributors-to-trump-inauguration-seek-to-curry-favor-1ad97364f157#.g9m2p6iw1 314 https://medium.com/public-citizen/the-people-shaping-trumps-inauguration-b7cc61eff2b0 - .7chxyen7a 315 http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article127946124.html 316 http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article127946124.html 317 http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/donald-trump-pentagon-pick-mattis-made-nearly-1000000-board-defense-contractor 318 https://theintercept.com/liveblogs/hearings/homeland-security-nominee-gen-john-kelly-has-been-quietly-working-for-a-major-defense-contractor/ 319 https://www.propublica.org/article/meet-hundreds-of-officials-trump-has-quietly-installed-across-government 320 https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/beachhead